how bad is my water

as long as nothing seems to stressed I would change everything back slowly and just watch to make sure you dont overdo the whole thing. Other than that take it slow and I understand about being to busy since "I work 12 hour shifts at work.

 

how many % water change do you suggest?

 

10% is a regurally used method for smaller tanks and I try and do them at least once a week at the earlyist and try not to go longer than 2 weeks before I change the water again. That being said mines a 20 gallon and needs more upkeep IMO and I do It because I did not have a proteine skimmer and was having nitrates at 80 PPM LOL.

all that being said start out at 10% changes twice a week for 1 week with regular tests to make sure its helping and try getting some of the test kits as you go along ot help with the tank in the long run.

 

haha thats alot of nitrats , thanks I will do one tomorrow since i gotta wait awhile for the salt to dissolve completley.

 

what brand buffer, and what buffer should I get? Im going to stop by the lfs to pick some up.
Could you guys recommand me in a good brand buffer, and tell me what type of buffer I should pick up? Currently I own 0 buffer

 

What salt are you using? I used to use IO and always had to dose. I now use Coralife and don't dose anymore..

 

i use H2O salt

 

Remember a water change will only remove the same percentage of the bad stuff as the percentage of water you remove.
For example:
If you do a 10% water change, you will only remove 10% of your nitrates. In your case, that means you will only remove ~3 points of nitrate out of your water, which means you are still at 22ppm. I don't know why, but there are people who think doing a normal water change will drop your nutrients by like 50% or whatever. I just wanted to make sure that is understood properly. And to be honest, what is causing your nitrate problem will probably replenish the removed nitrates before you even complete your water change.

You have to find the root of your problem to fix your NO3 and PO4 problem. Looking at your stats, I would suspect either your salt mixture or the food you are feeding.
Your low alk levels are probably tied in to your source water, you can add some baking soda to help this. Check your pH level as well. With low alkalinity, your buffering capacity is pretty low, which means you will probably have some wild pH swings throughout the day.
Personally, I keep my levels higher than "normal."
Alk = 13
Mag = 1500
Ca = 460-480
Doing this keeps my pH near 8.4 all day long.